Rupee at record low, Rs50.40 against dollar

Mumbai: The rupee recovered from a record low Rsof 50.60 per dollar reached in early trade on Thursday, helped by heavy dollar selling by the Reserve Bank of India, dealers said.

At 4:25pm the partially convertible rupee was at Rs50.00/02 per dollar, off a high of Rs49.94, and little changed from its close of Rs50.02/03 on Wednesday.

Indian shares tumbled 3.7% on Thursday, taking the main stock index to its lowest close in more than three years, as jittery investors cut holdings as part of a broad sell-off in a worsening global economy.

The rupee depreciated by another 38 paise against US dollar in early trade on increased capital outflows and strong demand for the US currency from importers amid weakening equity markets.

Forex dealers said the domestic currency continued to remain under pressure in line with the weakening trends on the domestic bourses.

They said even selling of dollars by banks also failed to check weakness in the rupee’s value.

Meanwhile, the Indian benchmark BSE Sensex fell by over 322 points at points on Thursday.